SANTA ANA – An Orange County judge Monday reduced to misdemeanors charges of felony child endangerment against five relatives who lived in a Santa Ana home with two children, ages 6 and 12, and at least 110 cats.

Superior Court Judge William Evans did find sufficient evidence for two of the five adults to stand trial on a felony count of animal cruelty.

Sharon Lynn Howe, 65; her husband, John, 68; her daughter, Kerri Lynn Howe Moreno, 44; Moreno’s husband, Jessy, 41; and Kerri Moreno’s daughter, Courtney Lynn Howe Perez, 23, all had pleaded not guilty to two felony counts each of endangering children by exposing them to severely unsanitary conditions in a urine- and feces-filled residence.

Sharon Howe and Perez, accused of using their Santa Ana home to house unwanted cats, were charged with an additional felony count of animal cruelty.

“The conditions in which the children had to live in that home endangered their health and safety,” argued Deputy District Attorney Aleta Bryant.

Attorneys for the defendants argued prosecutors overcharged the case at a preliminary hearing that concluded Monday.

Howe and Perez are set to be arraigned Dec. 6 on the felony and misdemeanor counts; if convicted, they face a sentence ranging from probation to five years in state prison, time that would be served in county jail under new state sentencing laws.

The Morenos and John Howe, who are to be arraigned Dec. 7, face probation to two years in jail if convicted of the reduced misdemeanor child endangerment counts.

Deputy Alternate Defender Lee Stonum, who represents Kerri Moreno, said he believes other factors led Evans to reduce the charges, including that no police, social worker or teacher ever saw the children dirty or injured, and the room in which they slept with their parents was a “cat-free zone.”

Testimony at the preliminary hearing included that of Sondra Berg, the supervisor for the animal-services unit at the Santa Ana Police Department.

When Berg, wearing a mask, entered the South Baker Street home in February 2011, she encountered dozens of cats, litter boxes overflowing with feces, feline urine and more fecal matter on the floor and walls of every part of the house, including the kitchen, and an odor so powerful that her eyes and nose began to water and her throat burned, she said.

Less than 10 minutes later, the non-sworn Santa Ana officer and her partner had to get out.

“It was hard to breathe throughout the house,” Berg testified.

Santa Ana police animal services officers captured 110 cats in the home, many of them feral; more than 20 of the cats had to be euthanized, prosecutors said.

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